BirdLife Malta and Din l-Art Helwa have expressed their utter dismay at what they described as slanderous comments uttered by FKNK's Secretary Lino Farrugia during the programme Id-Dura, aired on Smash TV on November 2nd, relative to the tree-planting weekend held at FORESTA 2000 between October 26th and 28th.

Tolga Temuge, the Executive Director of BirdLife Malta said: "BirdLife has held off from rebutting wrongful claims made by Lino Farrugia in the past, but can no longer tolerate the mis-information being spread by Mr Farrugia with the express intent of harming our organisation. To this end, BirdLife together with Din l-Art Helwa (DLH) categorically deny the claims made by Mr Farrugia during Id-Dura and demand a clear and unequivocal retraction as well as an apology."

Most seriously, during the programme Farrugia claimed that BirdLife and DLH collected Lm 45,000 following the vandalism attack on the night between May 8th and May 9th at the FORESTA 2000 site and took this money to line their pockets: "Akkwistaw kemxa flus? l-aqwa ssahhah il-but finanzjarju?" (Quote lifted from Id-Dura and made by Farrugia). "BirdLife categorically denies this and furthermore adds that the sum of money referred to by Mr Farrugia was collected by the Ministry for Rural Affairs and the Environment (MRAE) in a bank account opened and managed by MRAE. The money collected in this account was put by MRAE towards the re-planting of several thousands of trees and shrubs, far more than the 3,000 destroyed in May," Temuge said.

The Executive President of Din l-Art Helwa, Martin Galea added: "Farrugia also claimed that whoever planted a tree between October 26th and October 28th had to pay a further Lm 6. This could not be further from the truth. Those persons who had pledged money towards the MRAE account planted trees over this weekend without paying any further funds. However, members of the public who had not yet contributed to the fund and who also wanted to plant a tree had the opportunity to turn up during the FORESTA 2000 tree-planting weekend and pledge their donation there and then. In fact, more trees than planned were re-planted."

In addition, Farrugia spoke about why FKNK were not present at the tree-planting event and, rather than stating the true reasons behind this choice, he made an absurd claim that BirdLife would not have allowed FKNK to participate in the tree-planting weekend. In reality, with regards to companies, other organisations and members of the public who came to plant a tree, it was MRAE that coordinated the bookings. "The Ministry informed BirdLife that FKNK would be coming on site to plant trees and no objection was raised. Despite this FKNK chose not to contribute to the tree-planting efforts, but instead chose to accuse BirdLife for the Federation's absence during the biggest tree planting activity in the Maltese islands," Temuge added.

Farrugia continued in his tirade against BirdLife and DLH giving false information. He said that the trees planted had cost nothing since they were donated by, amongst others, Italy. In fact, only around 1,000 trees were donated by the Italian State. The rest were bought by MRAE.

"As a result, Mr. Farrugia has clearly given wrong, mis-leading and damaging information with the intent of discrediting BirdLife Malta together with Din l-Art Helwa. Mr. Farrugia's unfounded allegations and previous xenophobic and aggressive statements clearly show that law abiding hunters of Malta deserve a better representative than himself," Temuge concluded.

For more information on FORESTA 2000, the vandalism attack and the tree-planting weekend please visit www.birdlifemalta.org... and www.dinlarthelwa.org....